One observation I've found that I would like to change in this game is the xp ratio of 9 man parties. Clearly as the game is right now max xp groups contain no more than 4 people, usually with boxes. Unfortunately this really limits the amount of people that get xp and support classes tend to get shunned.
The benefits of 9 man parties are clear.
-more people involved = more comraderie
-less people left out
-more mass pvp instead of ganks (side bonus of more people hunting in the same spot)
I would like to suggest that NC setup some type of xp algorithm that truly rewards 9 man parties. Some type of xp area that makes it worthy of bringing 9 people together. You did a very good job of this in my opinion down at the bottom of Imperial Tomb, however this is only one hunting spot.
no the party bonus seriously deterorates as you get beyond 4 people in a group..
with 5 more DDs in the group, and with the advantages of those DDs such as sws or bd or whatever, your kill speed increase doesn't meet up at all with the xp gotten vs a 4 man group doing the same room and killing slower.
20 minutes, 2% in 9 man party vs 20 minutes in 4 man group getting 3-5%.... yeah... totally doesn't balance.
PleChan said, 20 level gap or more the exp boni don't kick in. I can't check with my two-box though due to the experience consumption through the servitor and my laziness.
I should have been more specific in my request. The xp rates for 9 man parties hunting mobs around their own levels or higher should be much higher. Nine man parties should be rewarded because they take the most coordination, and for the most part get more people involved. I can't understand why NC wouldn't reward what I believe to be the basis of this game... Comraderie and Community.
In general, efficient 9-person groups already outperform smaller parties for the simple reason that you get more leverage out of your buffs. Of course, if you play with slackers that are always going afk, or if you are killing faster than mobs spawn, you won't do as well. But i places like imperial tomb, heart of warding, and TOI full parties do very well.
The higher I've gotten, the more glaringly evident the gap between small parties and big parties has gotten.
IMO it boils down to a couple fo things. First, small parties have a larger tendency to have out of party buffers and healers. This means that each party member is contributing to DPS, which in turn means more XP for the party members.
A 9 person party is usually going to have at least 1 or 2 support classes in it, and they take a small share of the xp without adding to the DPS. (Compared to a small group that has the same buffers, they just aren't taking any of the xp.)
Realistically though, this isn't what creates the gap between the xp gain in small and large groups, it is just a minor contributing factor.
The big thing was the major increase to the xp bonus on the small group end of the scale in C3. They increased the bonues dramatically for 2, 3, and 4 person groups, but they didn't change the bonus for large groups. On top of that, and it may just be my playstyle, it seems like 4x mobs used to be strictly the territory of a well built 9 person group, whereas these days it's not all that unusual to see 3 or 4 person groups with out of party buffers/healers killing those same 4x mobs.
I think the mistake was in not upping the bonus on the large party end of the scale. I prefer 9 person parties, our clan tends to make large groups, but the xp is just not as good as the smaller parties since they buffed that bonus.
It would be nice if they upped the bonus on the 9 person group end of the scale to make the xp a bit more even, no matter how big your party is.
**Note - the new rule about buffing people out of party may have an effect on out of party buffers, although I don't recall if it was only for certain buffs or for all of them..
nearly everyone hates 9 man parties just because the xp is so hindered..
dropping one person makes a fairly large difference on xp alone..
the minute you hit 4 people... things are insanely excellent xp..
I don't know about 5-8.. they should get a bit of a balanced increase.. but ncsoft should try and promote 9 member parties. I'm not sure if giving a 9 member party similare xp to that of what a person would get solo.... but it would MAKE people WANT to work together and make large groups and to Sustain them if they got even remotely close to that.
Right now i can solo ascetics... get roughly average of 15k xp per mob.
In a group of 4, i get roughly 7k average, (half), 5 people and it's 5k, 6 people and it just gets worse fast. (all same lvl as me)..
They should make it, 9 man party, 10k OR even 12.5k....
**Note - the new rule about buffing people out of party may have an effect on out of party buffers, although I don't recall if it was only for certain buffs or for all of them..
Hi Bigs ^^
Hmm.. i think it was only certain buffs that are going to be "party members only"...like, haste, holy weapon, zerk... which will be bothersome as I usually keep my buffer and healer out of party.
It seems in places you can go nonstop with 4 man parties, it's always better than taking a 9 man party. In Necropolis/Catacombs it's ALWAYS best to take a 4 man party. Rooms are too small and cramped. Most of the time you are running around, so more exp per mob = better.
Places like Imperial Tomb are the exceptions though, as it is worth it to bring bd/sws/warlock/(SE or Prophet)/5archers and attack speed potions. Especially since it's for S weapon recipes.
nevermind it takes a lot less time to get 3 - 4 member party together then it does a 9 member party.
Take into account the time it takes to get the party together to get them all out there and (if u dont have a WC or OL) how long it takes to buff the whole party.
Actually the difference in group making speed is minimal since the only difference between 4-9 man parties is usually a DD. Melee dd are usually begging for groups although 74+ DD's seem to get groups quite easily because of their level.